The document discusses global inequality, highlighting a growing gap between rich and poor nations, although some evidence suggests decreasing inequalities due to globalization. It examines the costs and benefits of free trade and the impact of international trade on global growth, emphasizing the need for balancing market openness with human rights and environmental protection. The role of the internet in globalization is also addressed, noting both opportunities for developing countries and the dominance of Western culture, while questioning the effects of globalization on labor standards and the environment.

2. WHY IS THERE GLOBAL INEQUALITY, & IS IT GETTING WORSE?
“The gap between the rich and poor nations of the
world is increasing…By the late 1990s the fifth
of the world’s people living in the highest-
income countries had:
86% of world GDP—the bottom fifth just 1%.
82% of world export markets—the bottom fifth
just 1%.
68% of foreign direct investment—the bottom
fifth just 1%.
74% of world telephone lines, today’s basic
means of communication—the bottom fifth just
1.5%.”

3. WHY IS THERE GLOBAL INEQUALITY, & IS IT GETTING WORSE?
There is mounting evidence that inequalities in global
income and poverty are decreasing and that globalization
has contributed to this turnaround. For example, the
World Bank notes that China's opening to world trade has
brought it growth in income from $1460 a head in 1980 to
$4120 by 1999. In 1980, American's earned 12.5 times as
much as the Chinese, per capita.
The gap between rich and poor is also shrinking with most
nations in Asia and Latin America. The countries that are
getting poorer are those that are not open to world trade,
notably many nations in Africa.”

4. WHAT ARE THE COSTS AND THE BENEFITS OF FREE TRADE?
“International trade and investment have been the
engines of world growth over the past 50
years… The benefits of that growth have been
shared. The countries that are getting poorer
are those that are not open to world trade,
notably many nations in Africa…Many people
believe that exports create jobs, and imports
cost jobs and that it therefore makes sense to
have barriers against imports.
This thinking led to the Great Depression in 1930,
because so many countries had erected
barriers against imports that global trade fell
with consequences.”

5. WHAT ARE THE COSTS AND THE BENEFITS OF FREE TRADE?
“The World Trade Organization agreements on free trade have
functioned principally to pry open markets for the benefit of
transnational corporations at the expense of national
economies; workers, farmers and other people; & the
environment.
The WTO should not solely focus on opening markets but also
allow trade to be restricted to support human rights, labor
rights and environmental objectives in other countries. The
WTO and trade agreements should also allow non-
government organizations a direct voice in their
governance.
The freeing of financial markets has brought global instability,
as evidenced in financial crises in Asia and Latin America
and the continuing marginalization of sub-Saharan Africa.”

6. WHAT IS THE ROLE OF THE INTERNET
& COMMUNICATIONS TECHNOLOGY IN GLOBALIZATION?
“Many within developing countries see the
internet as an opportunity to gain access to
knowledge and services from around the world
in a way that would have been unimaginable
previously… Globalization has drastically
improved access of technological latecomers to
advanced technologies and, to the extent that
technological upgrading is important for
development, it provides a unique opportunity
for low-income countries to raise per capita
income.”

7. WHAT IS THE ROLE OF THE INTERNET
& COMMUNICATIONS TECHNOLOGY IN GLOBALIZATION?
“Although the internet started off as a communal
medium for sharing information, principally
among academics, it is increasingly becoming
the tool of transnational corporations to market
their information products around the world.
Because it is rich countries generating most of
the content on the internet, it becomes a form of
cultural imperialism, in which western values
dominate. English is the language of the
internet.”

8. IS GLOBALIZATION SHIFTING POWER FROM NATION STATES TO
UNDEMOCRATIC ORGANIZATIONS?
“The major multilateral institutions acknowledge the
need to improve the transparency of their decision
making and each has programs to make themselves
more open to outside contributions and develop
better information flows. However they are all
organizations composed of governments.
In the case of the World Trade Organization, the practice
has been that no decisions are made unless a
consensus of governments is achieved. This
guarantees that the WTO reflects the will of its
member nation states.”

9. HOW DOES GLOBALIZATION AFFECT CULTURE? IS IT
‘AMERICANIZATION’?
“It is argued that one of the consequences of
globalization will be the end of cultural diversity,
and the triumph of a uni-polar culture serving
the needs of transnational corporations.
• Hence the world drinks Coca-Cola, watches
American movies and eats American junk food.
American culture is seen to be dominated by
monetary relationships and commercial values
replacing traditional social relationships and
family values.”

10. HOW DOES GLOBALIZATION AFFECT CULTURE? IS IT
‘AMERICANIZATION’?
“It does not make sense to talk of a world of 6
billion people becoming a monoculture. The
spread of globalization will undoubtedly bring
changes to the countries it reaches, but change
is an essential part of life. It does not mean the
abolition of traditional values.
Indeed, new global media, such as the internet,
have proven a powerful means of projecting
traditional culture (and the culture of radical
opponents of globalization).”

11. WHAT ARE THE ENVIRONMENTAL IMPACTS OF GLOBALIZATION?
“Integration in the world economy contributes to
environmental improvements by promoting
growth, increasing incomes, improving property
rights and the allowing the efficient use of
resources.
• The major cause of environmental damage is
market failure. Market failure is when those who
are producing or consuming goods or services
do not have to bear the full costs of their
actions, such as the cost of pollution. The
remedy is to make the polluter pay.”

12. WHAT ARE THE ENVIRONMENTAL IMPACTS OF GLOBALIZATIONS?
“One of the drivers of globalization is that
transnational companies want to place
environmentally degrading industries in
countries that do not have adequate
environmental controls.
• Resource industries such as forestry, mining
and fisheries exploit the resources of poor
countries with little regard to either the long
term cost to the country in terms of the loss of a
national resource, or to the environment.”

13. IS GLOBALIZATION SHIFTING POWER FROM NATION STATES TO
UNDEMOCRATIC ORGANIZATIONS?
“There are two strands to the argument that globalization is
undermining nation states. First, it is that it is empowering
corporations at the expense of the nation state, and
secondly, that the international institutions such as the
WTO and World Bank are not democratic…. There is an
issue of sheer size.
It is noted that many corporations are larger than nation
states – more than half the 100 largest economies in the
world are corporations.
The sales of Ford and General Motors combined are greater
than the combined GDP of sub-Saharan Africa while those
of the six largest Japanese trading companies are almost
as big as all the nations of Latin America combined….
None of these supranational organizations are
democratically constituted, and they make their decisions
behind closed doors.”

14. IS GLOBALIZATION RESULTING IN INDUSTRIES IN DEVELOPED
COUNTRIES BEING UNDERMINED BY INDUSTRIES IN DEVELOPING
COUNTRIES WITH INFERIOR LABOR STANDARDS?
“Globalization results in the exploitation of millions of
workers in countries that do not give workers rights to
organize. For example, a woman who sows a $200 Liz
Claiborne jacket sown in El Salvador is paid just 74 cents –
less than half of one per cent. In the US, the labor cost to
sew a garment is typically 10 per cent of the retail price.
• Workers in poor countries may have to work 12 hours a
day, seven days a week with few protections for health and
safety. In some countries, globalization leads the
exploitation of child, and prison labor.”

15. IS GLOBALIZATION RESULTING IN INDUSTRIES IN DEVELOPED
COUNTRIES BEING UNDERMINED BY INDUSTRIES IN DEVELOPING
COUNTRIES WITH INFERIOR LABOR STANDARDS?
“The growth in trade between nations has contributed to
lifting 3 billion people out of poverty over the past 50
years. Reducing tariff barriers, which makes it easier for
nations to trade with each other, lifts the wealth of all
nations by allowing them to concentrate on those where
they have greatest expertise.”

16. SO……….
 Is globalization good or bad?
 Please Share your thoughts and opinions with a
comment for a debate on “How globalization can
effect our businesses & our recruitment procedures
in the future?
Prepared by:
Maen Aloquili
Twitter: @Aloquili